Un buon approccio

What are some of the biggest challenges design studios will face in 2015? And what steps should studios begin taking to prepare for what lies ahead?

One of the biggest challenges for us will be convincing potential clients that while we may not have a technology or capability right here in our office sitting in a chair at the moment, that we are collaborative and that that’s the best model for them. We bring in the right people at the right time. Fortunately, I do think that will become less and less challenging because clients don’t want the stickiness of paying for a lot of stuff they don’t need every day. But it is still a challenge, and I think it will continue to be a challenge. We have to find a way to say, “We don’t develop apps and we don’t develop these kind of things, but we know people who do and we’ll collaborate with them. Our ideas, from a branding perspective, will inform how that happens. And then we’ll have a cohesive message.” And that way, we don’t have to be experts at everything.

Besides, anyone who says they’re an expert at everything is probably not really an expert at anything. Going forward, we also need to remember humanity in our designs—and not the touchy feely part. I think people are at the point with Facebook and Twitter where they feel like they’re engaging with other people, but on some level they’re not really engaging at all. It’s not personal, not face-to-face. Perhaps design could help facilitate those social interactions a little bit more: real relationships and real social interactions. For that reason, I think experiential design is going to be big. I think clients have a tendency to say, “Oh, we need a Facebook page. We need to do this. We need to do that.” That’s all well and good, but we need to create some real interactions, too.